Cardinal Francis Arinze was for nearly 20 years the Vatican's point man for relations with Islam, a key element cardinals choosing the next pope may take into consideration.

This has fuelled speculation he could become the first African pope in more than 1,500 years.

A very spiritual man, he is sometimes seen walking to his office near the Vatican clutching rosary beads while praying, smiling all the time.

A theological conservative, he was born into an animist family in the village of Eziowelle. He was not baptised until the age of nine, when he converted to Catholicism.

He now heads the Vatican department for divine worship.

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JORGE MARIO BERGOGLIO (ARGENTINE), BORN DEC. 17, 1936[]

The archbishop of Buenos Aires is a trained chemist who stands out for his humility. He lives in a simple flat rather than his luxury official residence and gets around town by bus.

Bergoglio stresses a traditional and spiritual approach to his role. In the Holy Year 2000, for example, he had the whole Church in Argentina don garments of public penance for sins committed during the years of military dictatorship.

Fellow prelates sat up and took notice of Bergoglio in 2001 when he deftly helped manage a synod of bishops in Rome.

Playing against him is the fact he belongs to the Jesuit order, which has never produced a pope because its members are supposed to avoid Church honours and serve the pope himself.

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DARIO CASTRILLON HOYOS (COLOMBIAN), BORN JULY 4, 1929[]

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos is a strong candidate with a broad range of experience both in his native Colombia, in Latin America, and at the Vatican.

In the 1980s and early 1990s he held powerful and influential posts as secretary and later president of CELAM, the conference that groups Latin American bishops.

He was instrumental in steering the continent's churches away from controversial liberation theology during one of Latin America's most difficult and violent periods.

To reward him, the Pope called Castrillon Hoyos to Rome in 1996 and put him at the head of the powerful Congregation for the Clergy, which deals with priests around the world.

----- GODFRIED DANNEELS (BELGIAN), BORN JUNE 4, 1933[]

Danneels, the archbishop of Brussels, is a gifted preacher ranked as the main liberal contender for the papacy. He has taken a leading role in a drive to revive the Catholic faith in European cities.

He made waves by urging the Vatican to allow women to hold top posts normally taken by cardinals, by saying condoms could be used in the fight against AIDS and by arguing that Islam in Europe has to reform in order to integrate there. He also wants local bishops to have more say in running the Church.

Danneels, a jovial man who gives lively interviews in his native Dutch as well as English, French and Italian, has been a key player at Vatican synods in the past decade.

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IVAN DIAS (INDIAN), BORN APRIL 14, 1936[]

Although born in Bombay, Cardinal Ivan Dias spent most of his adult life serving as a Church diplomat outside of India before returning as his city's archbishop in 1997.

That career path could explain his status as an Asian prelate more in tune with conservative Vatican thinking than some reformist views that have emerged in the Church in Asia.

Dias was a junior diplomat in Scandinavia, Indonesia and Madagascar and held senior posts in Ghana, South Korea and Albania. He also ran the Vatican desk responsible for relations with the Communist world and parts of Africa.

Cardinal Claudio Hummes, archbishop of Sao Paolo, is a leading Latin American candidate who has refused to allow himself to be called progressive or conservative.

A defender of the poor and outspoken critic of human rights abuses, he is also considered a theological conservative in Latin America, one of the homes of liberation theology. He agrees with the Vatican view that concern for the poor should be dictated purely by the Gospel and not by political ideologies.

He has criticised government policies he says have increased unemployment but defended private property and distanced himself from the Landless Movement, which encourages jobless rural workers to occupy unused land.

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JOSEPH RATZINGER (GERMAN), BORN APRIL 16, 1927[]

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger seems typecast for the role of doctrinal watchdog he has played at the Vatican since 1981. Under his meek demeanour lies a steely intellect. His blunt judgments delight conservatives and outrage liberal Catholics.

Ratzinger was archbishop of Munich before taking over as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), the successor to the Inquisition, in 1981.

In that office, he has cracked down on liberation theology in Latin America and denounced sexual liberalism in the West. In 2000, his document "Dominus Iesus" (Lord Jesus) angered Protestants by saying their churches were "deficient".

One of Pope John Paul's closest advisers, Ratzinger became dean of the College of Cardinals in 2002.

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NICOLAS DE JESUS LOPEZ RODRIGUEZ (DOMINICAN), BORN OCT. 31, 1936[]

Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez is a doctrinal conservative and a staunch opponent of liberation theology, which tried to combine elements of the Gospel with Marxism.

He emerged as one of the major players in the Church in Latin America after he was made archbishop of Santo Domingo in 1981 at the relatively young age of 45.

Lopez Rodriguez has also been active in the media, promoting television evangelism programmes in Spanish for his country and Hispanics in the United States. His message has been one of progressive socioeconomic views and doctrinal conservatism.

A point against him is that he has had little experience with Vatican bureaucracy.

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GIOVANNI BATTISTA RE (ITALIAN), BORN JAN. 30, 1934[]

Giovanni Battista Re may know the inner workings of the Vatican better than anyone else alive today. This could either hurt or help him during a conclave to elect the next pope.

Cardinals looking for an ace administrator and bureaucrat to stay at home and take care of business after the globetrotting papacy of John Paul could see him as the right man.

Re, whose name means "king" in Italian, knows the corridors of power in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace better than the cleaners. He has held key positions in the Secretariat of State, and the powerful Congregation for Bishops.

He is considered an ultra-loyalist who has helped solve some of the most thorny administrative problems for the Pope.

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OSCAR ANDRES RODRIGUEZ MARADIAGA (HONDURAN), BORN DEC. 29, 1942[]

Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, another strong Latin American candidate, will be one of the youngest men to enter the conclave.

A defender of the poor, Rodriguez Maradiaga believes the real solution to the problems of Latin America and the all the developing world is social justice. He has also been open to working with other churches.

He is an accomplished linguist who can speak English, Italian, French, Portuguese and German as well as his native Spanish.

Rodriguez Maradiaga is a former president of CELAM, the Latin American bishops conference.

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CHRISTOPH SCHOENBORN (AUSTRIAN), BORN JAN. 22, 1945[]

Christoph Schoenborn, the suave and outgoing archbishop of Vienna, has everything going for him as a candidate for the next papacy -- except his age.

He is considered a man of broad intellectual capacity, a linguist, a good communicator, an accomplished theologian, an expert in philosophy and psychology and a deeply religious man.

But few want a papacy that could last three decades or more.

A member of the Dominican order, Schoenborn comes from a family of Bohemian nobility that gave him a sense of "noblesse oblige". Pope John Paul signalled his respect for him by making him the editor of the new Church catechism issued in the 1990s.

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ANGELO SCOLA (ITALIAN), BORN NOV. 7, 1941

Venice's Angelo Scola is the first cardinal from Communion and Liberation, one of the conservative Church movements that have enjoyed special support under Pope John Paul. Promoted in 2003, he ranks as an open-minded conservative and a good administrator.

Scola, who is fluent in English after studying at the Catholic University of America in Washington, was a professor and rector at the Lateran University. In 1995, he became head of its John Paul II Institute on Marriage and the Family.

He is said to have helped draft recent encyclicals in which the Pope restated his strong defence of traditional Catholic teaching on moral issues.

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DIONIGI TETTAMANZI (ITALIAN), BORN MARCH 14, 1934

Dionigi Tettamanzi, who heads the powerful archdiocese of Milan, tops the list of Italian favourites.

An intellectual, former seminary rector and prolific writer who helped Pope John Paul compose some of his encyclicals, the "little Lombard" has a lot of friends and few enemies.

Before moving to Milan, he was archbishop of Genoa and also served as head of the Italian bishops' conference.

Tettamanzi defended anti-globalisation protesters during a G8 summit in 2001 and has championed the fight against AIDS in Africa. Unusual for a cardinal, he is not a linguist and has not travelled much outside Italy.

I don't know that I think he'll become Pope, but Schoenborn would be a good bet for us Orthodox as he is reported as being a great supporter of efforts to come to reconciliation with us. Other than that, anyone who will continue towards reconciliation and anyone who will reduce the autocracy of the Papacy would be good, at least from my point of view. What we really don't want is the sort of modernising pro-homosexual, pro-female ordination Pope that the western media seem to be hoping for. Getting rid of their ridiculous insistance on priestly celibacy would be good, though.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

James

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We owe greater gratitude to those who humble us, wrong us, and douse us with venom, than to those who nurse us with honour and sweet words, or feed us with tasty food and confections, for bile is the best medicine for our soul. - Elder Paisios of Mount Athos

Posted by: jmbejdl Insert QuoteI don't know that I think he'll become Pope, but Schoenborn would be a good bet for us Orthodox as he is reported as being a great supporter of efforts to come to reconciliation with us. Other than that, anyone who will continue towards reconciliation and anyone who will reduce the autocracy of the Papacy would be good, at least from my point of view. What we really don't want is the sort of modernising pro-homosexual, pro-female ordination Pope that the

Here ...........quote//.Interviewer: In other words, you are expecting that, with a new Pontiff, the situation of the Lvov Orthodox Diocese can change for the better? And what do you think, which Cardinal, having become Pope of Rome, could build more constructive relations with the Orthodox world?

Archbishop Augustine: Personally, I would like to see Cardinal Christopher Schoenborn, the Archbishop of Vienna and Primate of Austria, to be elected as the new Pope. I know him personally. He is a major theologian and has a very sober view of the Church and the episcopate. It seems to me that if he were elected Pope, our relations with the Catholic Church would be better. Although you cannot guarantee it 100%, I think that, for Orthodox, relations cannot be worse than at present.

Posted by: jmbejdl Insert QuoteI don't know that I think he'll become Pope, but Schoenborn would be a good bet for us Orthodox as he is reported as being a great supporter of efforts to come to reconciliation with us. Glory be to God.helen...

I agree, I would like to see Schoenborn, but being 60 yrs old, some will think him too young. They want a shorter papacy this time around. They need to remember that John XXIII had a short papacy as did John Paul II and both did some earth shattering things for the church and the papacy.

The press is almost crowning Cardinal Ratzinger as the next pope. But the old saying is: "He who goes into the conclave as a pope, comes out a cardinal." I don't know how to react to Ratzinger as the Pope.